


Two Solitudes

by wankernumber9



Series: Harmonices Mundi [5]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Science Fiction, Soft Thasmin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-01-06 01:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18378209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wankernumber9/pseuds/wankernumber9
Summary: Previously, in the series with the pretentious Latin name: A human space station blew up, leading to timey-wimey investigation and timey-wimey character development. Also, adventures in alien grammar and gay pining. Finally, Yaz and the Doctor got their smooch on.Next up: The conclusion to the space station mystery, and a lot more smooching.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other._ \- Ranier Maria Rilke

She had a bad feeling.

It was the nebulous, unspecified kind of anxiety that liked to rattle about in her brain, keeping her up for days while she tried to convince herself she could do anything at all to offset the cruelty of an uncaring universe.

In another lifetime, another body, she might have invented a grand crusade to cut a dramatic swath of justice across the cosmos, the time-traveling equivalent of rescuing kittens from trees.

In _this_ lifetime, _this_ body craved the company of one Yasmin Khan. Honestly, it was an improvement over the previous inclination to wage campaigns of self-righteous fury, but...

Yaz was asleep.

She was at Yaz's door before she was even conscious of it, and spared a sideways look at the TARDIS for likely distorting its own interior space to move the door closer.

She knocked, quietly.

When Yaz didn't answer immediately, the Doctor convinced herself to go, and she stole away down the corridor.

"Doctor?" Yaz asked.

She turned to see a sleep-mussed Yaz in a loose tshirt and shorts, barefoot and squinting at her. "Oh, Yaz. I'm so sorry for bothering you."

"You're never a bother," Yaz said, easily. "Everything all right?"

When the Doctor didn't answer, Yaz stepped forward and grabbed her hand. "C'mon. It's cold out here."

She tugged the Doctor back toward her room and climbed into bed, moving off to one side while the Doctor kicked off her shoes.

Once the Doctor was settled on her side facing her, Yaz tossed the blankets over them both and gave the Doctor her full, though sleepy, attention.

"Anything that needs fixing right now?"

The Doctor shook her head, watching her with wide eyes. "No."

"Anything you need to talk about right now?"

She shook her head again.

"Can I snuggle on you and we can work on it in a few hours?"

The Doctor exhaled shakily, and her vision blurred with tears. "Definitely."

"Good." Yaz scooted in, and tucked herself against the Doctor's chest. She smiled when the Doctor pulled her closer and pressed a kiss to her hair. "Try to get some rest," she murmured.

The prospect of doing that was a lot easier with Yaz's warm, soft weight curled against her. The Doctor felt her hearts slow, and her mind settle. For a moment she debated where to put her hands, eventually deciding on a gentle, rhythmic stroking down Yaz's back that made the younger woman hum in her sleep.

Yaz's scent, which had always been appealing to this new nose, came crashing into her brain, augmented by artron energy to something that felt _addictive_. It was so soothing and comfortable, and the Doctor wanted to tug Yaz close and just breathe her in for hours.

Wait. Was that weird? Probably weird. Probably shouldn't mention that out loud. Probably lucky coincidence that Yaz seemed to like being held, seemed to like their new intimacy.

The Doctor wanted to stay awake, to examine this sensation, to dissect it and study its flaws, reflexively fighting the notion that after all this time adrift, she had finally found some measure of peace. Instead, she focused on Yaz's soft breathing and drifted off, letting herself feel safe and content for the first time in what felt like lifetimes.

* * *

"Oh good, you're up."

Yaz cracked one eye open, then closed it again. "Not _really_ ," she grumbled.

"Oh." The Doctor slumped, and managed to sit still for a whole ninety seconds longer. "How 'bout now?" She slid back under the covers, scooting in to loom large in Yaz's drowsy field of vision. "There's so much to do."

"Like what?" Yaz asked, with obvious doubt. When the Doctor didn't reply, she opened her eyes to see the other woman watching her with one of the sweetest, softest expressions she'd ever seen. 

"Hi," the Doctor murmured.

Yaz couldn't even restrain her grin in response. It was probably dangerous just how much she was charmed by this woman. "Hi," she replied. "Feeling better today?"

"Loads," the Doctor said. She propped herself up on an elbow, and looked around in curiosity. "I like your room," she said.

"Well, you're welcome anytime," Yaz offered. She shoved her hands under her pillow to get closer to the Doctor's posture without fully conceding to the need to get up. "So what was all that about, last night?"

The Doctor shook her head and shrugged. "Oh, you know. Old worries."

"You have a lot of those," Yaz said, gently.

"Not a lot of Time Lord therapy sessions available these days," the Doctor replied. Under the covers, she prodded Yaz with a foot. "You made it better, though. Thanks for that."

"Always."

She noticed Yaz wasn't entirely convinced. "If it's ever more than the usual insomnia, we'll talk it over, okay?"

"Okay." Yaz reached out and wrapped a pinky finger around the Doctor's, sealing the promise.

They smiled goofily at each other for a moment before Yaz sighed, and finally put voice to a question that had bothered her since they'd departed the frigid hills of Baridi. "Should we... tell anyone?" she asked.

"About?" The Doctor felt an odd dread in the pit of her stomach, thinking Yaz was about to ask to keep their relationship under wraps. Not that she had anyone to tell, really, but she wasn't particularly good at keeping secrets.

"About me? My new... condition?"

Oh. "Well, if UNIT still had funding, they'd probably pick you up the minute we get back to Earth." She tried not to sound bitter about the idiotic bureaucracy at odds with the defense of the entire planet. "It's up to you, though. You get to tell anyone anything you want about yourself. Eventually, people will cotton on. You're already a different person than you were."

"I am?"

The Doctor studied her with a tiny smile, and drew a fingertip across Yaz's brow, into her soft, dark hair. "When we met, you were so frustrated with how small your world seemed," she said.

"I mean, I was right about that," Yaz muttered in response. "Stupid parking disputes."

"Look at you now, though." The Doctor's tone turned reverent. "The entire universe in your eyes, and you only want more. So beautiful." She cleared her throat a bit, trying to get back to her original thought. "Anyway. You're still brave, and curious, and clever. But you've also done some truly amazing things, and they've changed you."

Yaz fidgeted shyly. "Is that enough, now?"

"Enough for what?"

Yaz looked embarrassed, and tried to sort the uncomfortable admission. "I always got the feeling there was some prerequisite, for us. Like I needed to hit a particular mark before you'd ever allow yourself to be interested."

"Hmm," the Doctor said, with a thoughtful furrow of her brow. "Like one of those signs, at an amusement park? 'You must be this tall to ride the Doctor?'"

Yaz snorted, and buried her face in her pillow. "Did you just... oh my _God_."

The Doctor chuckled for a moment, before giving Yaz a serious look. "Listen very carefully, Yasmin Khan. You are an extraordinary person, and have never not been 'enough.' I won't have you thinking otherwise."

Yaz relaxed. "Okay."

The Doctor tilted closer with a cheeky smile. "You were _always_ tall enough for this ride."

Yaz burst into laughter again, then obliged the Doctor's seeking with a proper good morning kiss.

* * *

Ryan was frowning at the console when Yaz wandered in. He looked up and lifted his chin in a greeting. "Hey."

"Hey," she said back. "What's wrong?"

"There's a new bit," he said, pointing at the console.

She wandered over to look. Indeed, there _was_ a new component, a tiny chute right alongside the Doctor's custard cream dispenser. Yaz pressed the corresponding pedal on the floor, then lit up in delight when a chocolate bourbon slid neatly out of its bespoke slot. "Ah! These are my favorite," she said, then grabbed the biscuit and bit it in half. "Want some?"

Ryan shook his head, giving her an odd look. "By the way, the camera you tossed into that temporal fissure was a CapIt Action 1080. It's on my wishlist."

Yaz nodded. "I could Kerblam it for you?"

He actually considered that for a second, then thought better of it. "Nah. Standard post back home is fine." He pointed up at the screen he'd been using before the biscuit distraction. "Did you see this? The camera sent back just a couple frames before losing connection."

Yaz squinted at the image, recognizing the chasm on Baridi. In the pictured version, the people she'd seen as temporal "echoes" appeared to be far more solid. "That woman," she said, pointing to the far corner. "She has one of those vortex manipulators."

Ryan pursed his lips and nodded. "The Doctor did say time travelers are trouble." He looked over and noticed she was eating another biscuit. "So, special treatment from the TARDIS? What's up with that?"

She fidgeted, inclined to avoid the subject. The Doctor has warned her that people would notice a difference, but she didn't realize it would be so immediate. She sat on a nearby step, and decided he deserved the whole story. "That fissure on Baridi. It did something to me."

"What'd it do? Are you okay?"

"The Doctor says my cells have basically stopped aging. She keeps scanning me, just to be sure, but it might be permanent."

"Permanent?" He folded his arms. "So, what? You're like this, forever?"

"Might just be," she said, with an uncertain look.

"Does that mean you're never gonna die?"

She shrugged. After the silence dragged out for too long, Yaz sighed. "Aren't you gonna say anything?"

"I dunno," he said. "What's the right thing to say? Congratulations?"

"You're angry," she observed.

"I'm... I dunno what I am." He scrubbed his hands over his head, then held them out in question. "Are you okay with this?"

"'Okay' with living forever?" she asked, dryly. "It's not the strangest thing that's happened since we met the Doctor." Belatedly, she remembered everyone they'd met along the way who hadn't been as fortunate, including Grace. She looked away and swallowed against the sudden feeling of profound unworthiness.

He didn't seem to notice. "Everything is different out here," he said. "I mean, the Doctor told us we wouldn't be the same when we return, but can you even go back, now?"

"I don't know," Yaz admitted. "I'm not sure I want to."

"So, what, you'd just live in the TARDIS forever? You and her?"

She lifted her chin in reflexive defiance. "What's wrong with that?"

He shook his head and shrugged. "Nothing, I guess. It's just... she's an alien, you know? We don't really know that much about her."

"I know more than you think," Yaz snapped. "Good _and_ bad."

He watched her for a moment. "There's bad?"

"Yeah, there's bad," she confirmed, annoyed with herself for disclosing as much out of turn. "She's complicated."

"Complicated how?"

Yaz couldn't hope to do justice to the pain of the Doctor losing her family, her people, and over time, every single person she'd ever loved. She shrugged. "Bound to be complicated, with as long as she's been around."

Ryan misread that assertion, and instantly veered toward the worst case scenario. "Has she ever..."

"She would never hurt me, or any of us. She'd sooner cut off her own arm," Yaz interrupted. "You know that already."

He nodded, accepting that answer, uneasy as it made him.

"I'm safer here than on the job back home," she concluded.

At that, he gave her a deeply skeptical look. "You just got zapped by _time stuff_."

"Oi, _you're_ the one who summoned an alien assassin in the woods five miles from home."

"All right, all right." He raised his hands in defense, and turned on his heel to back away. He fussed idly with a switch on the console. "I was just... hoping we'd go back to Sheffield sometime, you know? And be mates?"

"We'll still be mates," she said, more quietly. " _I_ was hoping you'd be happy for me."

"Are _you_ happy?"

"Yeah," she replied.

His face broadcasted ill-disguised disbelief, and it made her chuckle.

"I _am_ happy," she insisted. "I want to be here, with her, more than anything." As usual, while talking about the Doctor, Yaz's face lit with wonder and delight, then abruptly her expression fell. "But I dunno _what_ I'm gonna tell my family."

"Well, she's clever, right? Could she undo it? The... thing?" He twiddled his fingers to somehow indicate the cellular change.

She tucked her elbows in tight against her lap, and curled in on herself. "That's almost _worse_."

Ryan felt her mood turn down a dark path, and frowned. "Why?" he asked, quietly.

She stared at the thrumming of the TARDIS' console, letting her eyes unfocus for a moment. "She's so scared," Yaz admitted in a small voice. "She thinks she's hiding it, but I know. And the TARDIS knows. People don't stay with her for long." She looked up at him, with a sad shrug. "But maybe I can stay long enough to help her heal."

"No. No, wait. That's not your job, Yaz," Ryan objected. "Look. After my mum died, Nan made me go to a counselor, right? His name was _Chip_." He stuck his tongue out in obvious distaste, and heard Yaz's chuckle. "He wasn't super helpful, but he did tell me that no one is responsible to make someone else better. That's not a thing you can do for her."

Yaz was shaking her head. "It's not like that," she argued. She was upset at how this conversation had unspooled, but was unable to expand further on her point. She gave up and instead looked away, fighting frustrated tears.

He plunked down next to her and slung an arm over her shoulder. "Okay. So you'll figure it out," he said. "You have time. And Graham and me... we'll help, or whatever."

She nodded, and leaned into him gratefully.

The moment drew out, leaving one bit of Ryan's curiosity unanswered. "So, do you love her?" he asked.

"I really do," she replied.

He knew, without looking, that she had that expression of wonder on her face again.

A couple minutes later, the Doctor traipsed in, felt the unsettled mood in the air, spun on her heel and took a step toward escape before spinning again. She settled on a frown and stuffing her hands into her pockets, looking painfully hesitant.

Ryan gave Yaz a final side-hug and pushed himself upright. On his way out, he stopped in front of the Doctor, and gave her a stern look. "You'd better do right by her," he pronounced, before giving Yaz a nod and leaving the room.

The Doctor watched him leave, then cast a look over to Yaz, who was shaking her head with exasperated amusement.

"What was all that about?" the Doctor asked.

"I told him," Yaz said with a sigh. "I told him about what happened on Baridi and that I want to stay here with you. He's just concerned for me."

The Doctor pursed her lips and rocked idly on her heels. "He's not the only one," she murmured.

Yaz immediately got to her feet. "Oh no, I am _not_ having more worries today," she declared. "Old or new." As usual, the Doctor's gentle, stalwart presence soothed all her remaining uncertainty, filling her instead with bright confidence. She stepped over and rested her hands on the Doctor's hips, steady and sure as she leaned in for a quick kiss. "I think you need to take me on a date."

The Doctor managed a startled chuckle against her lips. "Is that so?"

"Mmhmm," Yaz hummed. "This is all out of order. We basically already live together, we're already talking about not-growing old together..."

"Hazard of being a time traveler," the Doctor observed. "You do mostly get used to it."

"Well, then, we have catching up to do on the bits we've missed," Yaz said. "We should go on a proper date."

The Doctor pondered that for a moment, racking her brain for a generationally-appropriate option. "'Netflix and chill?'" she ventured.

Yaz rolled her eyes. "You're lucky you're cute," she muttered. "A _proper_ date," she insisted again. "Dinner and dancing." She smiled in fond recollection. "My granddad used to take my nani out dancing. I always thought that was the most romantic thing."

"I have _totally_ danced before," the Doctor asserted. "With... mixed results," she added, making a face. "I think I might only know how to lead. Is that all right?"

"That's all right," Yaz confirmed.

"Oh wait, there was that time with the ambassador's daughter on New New Europa." The Doctor looked down between them. "But you're lacking at least four legs for that waltz." A different realization made her look up abruptly. "I don't think I own any dresses. Do _you_ own any dresses?"

For neither the first nor last time, Yaz resorted to silencing the Doctor's prodigious verbal processing with a kiss.

Then added another for good measure.


	2. Chapter 2

It took an embarrassing number of attempts for the Doctor to disengage from Yaz and successfully make it over to the console.

"Right, then!" the Doctor said, rubbing her hands together. "A date." She couldn't restrain a gleeful bounce. "How about the Crystalline Seas of the Large Magellanic Cloud? Lovely floating continent there, permanently adrift. Great spring rolls. Well, I say 'spring,' but they don't actually have seasons, what with the floating..."

"Sounds perfect," Yaz interjected.

The Doctor grinned and turned a dial, then frowned when it turned back of its own volition. She tried again, then tried a switch, four gauges, and a lever, all with the same result. "Oi, stubborn thing," the Doctor muttered. She poked the console, then stood back and glared at it.

Yaz was almost reluctant to participate in the apparent spat. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, really," the Doctor sighed. She leaned over a screen, interpreting the data on the display. "Looks like the TARDIS has its sights set on a fixed point in time. Some sort of party."

"Oh? What kind of party?"

"Not sure. The readings are quite insistent, yet maddeningly vague." She poked the console again to properly convey her annoyance.

Yaz squinted at the console. "What's she up to?"

"No idea," the Doctor said. "But I don't think we'll be able to get to our date."

For a moment, all three sentient beings waited in a kind of intractable limbo, before Yaz decided to break the stalemate. "A party could be nice," she ventured. " _Almost_ like a date."

The Doctor looked at her brightly. "It absolutely _could_ be," she agreed, with her usual optimism successfully renewed.

"And it's not at all suspicious that this party is apparently a fixed point in time and that the TARDIS is stuck on going there," Yaz added, with an expectant look.

"Oh no, it is _definitely_ suspicious," the Doctor replied, making a face. "Also a bit ominous."

Yaz shook her head, and didn't bother hiding an anticipatory grin. "Sounds like fun."

"It does, doesn't it?" the Doctor said, grinning back. "Should we get ready, then?"

"I suppose we should," Yaz agreed.

"Meet you back here in a tick," the Doctor said.

Neither woman moved, and after a moment they chuckled at each other and their mutual reluctance to separate.

Finally, the Doctor sighed, and took the initiative to turn and head to her room. "Entirely too old to be acting like a teenager," she muttered, poking the nearest bulkhead when the TARDIS hummed in agreement.

* * *

Yaz returned to the console room two hours later, fussing with an earring. She was wearing a long, flowing, crimson dress she'd found conveniently hanging in her room, which fit perfectly and practically glowed in vibrant warmth against her skin. She wasn't sure about the TARDIS' current shenanigans, but at least the ship appeared to have good taste.

"Yaz, you ready?" the Doctor called as she wandered in. She was wearing a long dark jacket and matching trousers, with a vest and a crisp white dress shirt. As she drew closer, she pried at the top button. "Found this getup helpfully front and center in my wardrobe. Annoying thing... I used to have quite an affinity for bow ties. Couldn't get one tied this time, so I gave up."

Yaz stepped over and helped her undo the stubborn button, then spread the collar a bit. "You look like you did when we met," she murmured with a smile. She leaned back, giving the Doctor a once over. "Little less worse for wear."

"Is this all right?" The Doctor smoothed down her jacket, suddenly unsure. "I realized I don't actually know how to dress for parties as a woman," she admitted. "There are so many choices."

Yaz took gentle hold of a lapel, and cocked her head at the Doctor in curiosity. "Do you somehow _not_ know how beautiful you are?"

The Doctor flushed, and her mouth worked soundlessly.

"Because I thought for sure you knew that."

The Doctor coughed a bit. "Well, this is new for me, too."

Yaz took a moment, humbled by this wise, ancient alien feeling at all shy in the face of a social event with her. She leaned in and pressed a kiss to the Doctor's cheek. "You look amazing," she whispered, into the Doctor's ear.

The Doctor pulled away just enough to get a proper look at Yaz, and beamed in obvious admiration. "So do you."

They were grinning at each other goofily when Graham and Ryan wandered in, effectively interrupting the moment. 

"Aha," Graham said. "Told you something was up." He chuckled when the women jumped apart awkwardly.

Ryan nodded. "Should have figured, with the chaos coming out of the Doctor's room."

"More 'minor commotion' than 'chaos,'" the Doctor muttered. "And why don't you boys dress up and join us?"

"Nah. We got family game night," Ryan said. "Gonna try the zero gravity basketball court."

" _He's_ going to try it," Graham clarified. "I'm going to keep my feet firmly on the ground, with ice packs and plasters ready." He took a moment to look over the women and their outfits, and he shook his head in bemusement. "Besides, I think we'd be a couple extra wheels on your little outing." He gestured, shooing them toward the door. "Go have fun. Try not to cause any interstellar incidents without us."

"Suit yourselves," the Doctor said with a shrug, before pulling the lever to cue the TARDIS' materialization. "But interstellar incidents can be a right laugh." She offered her arm to Yaz, who took it and stepped with her over to the door.

"Aren't they just precious?" Graham asked, pressing a hand to his chest.

"They grow up so fast," Ryan agreed, wiggling his fingers in a wave when Yaz cast a dirty look at him over her shoulder.

* * *

It was sunset, wherever they were. The breeze was warm and pleasant, and the sky above was clear. The TARDIS had materialized in a lush garden, alongside a path that wound casually up a hill.

The Doctor stepped out, waited for Yaz, then shut the door. For a moment they stood together, simply looking around, before they started walking.

"It's lovely," Yaz said. "Any idea where and when?"

"Hmm." The Doctor took a deep sniff. "Milky Way, somewhere in the third millennia. You can smell the alloy they've used to build most of the city," she said, pointing to the domed buildings that dotted the rolling landscape. "Falls out of favor once they invent polysilicon."

Yaz likewise took a draw of the air, and was surprised to detect the metallic tang the Doctor referred to.

"Oh, there's a flowerbed," the Doctor said, before giving Yaz a questioning look.

"I can live with the mystery for now," Yaz replied, tugging the Doctor away before she was tempted to sample the soil.

The Doctor wasn't even fazed by the change in direction, happily chattering as they wandered along the path. "The TARDIS assures me this is a mostly human event," she said, once they'd spotted the apparent entrance. "The food and drink should be quite compatible, which is nice. Can't have a proper fancy-dress party with food poisoning."

Yaz nodded agreeably, though her attention was mostly consumed by the venue before them.

The path ended at the top of the gentle slope, where a huge but somehow delicate building was perched, bursting from the ground in ornate, organic shapes that by their very nature suggested triumph and celebration. Behind it, the setting alien sun cast the sky in bold hues.

They appeared to be among the last guests to arrive, though no one seemed in any particular hurry. Yaz was relieved that their outfits seemed to blend into the era and occasion.

A dapper young man stood behind a small lectern at the building's door, examining invitations and assigning ushers to escort the guests to their tables.

Yaz tensed a bit as they approached. The Doctor had her psychic paper at the ready, but didn't even get the chance to present it before the host lit up in recognition. "Oh wonderful, the Doctor and Ms. Khan. We're so glad you could attend after all."

"Right," the Doctor drawled, as she tucked the psychic paper away in a pocket. "Because of course we were invited." She hoped she sounded reasonably confident, even as she heard Yaz sigh minutely beside her.

As the host led them toward their seats, Yaz leaned in to mutter in the Doctor's ear. " _Were_ we invited?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Seems that way. Rather delightfully convenient, innit?"

Yaz shook her head, with a touch of fond exasperation. "You know, I appreciate that 'curiosity' is your default state, but I'll be keeping an eye on things."

"Ah, but I'm _counting_ on that, PC Khan," the Doctor replied, with a grin. They arrived at their table, and the Doctor leaned in after Yaz had taken her seat, lightly bonking their noses together. "All of that, by the way, is why you're amazing," she murmured, before pressing a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth and sitting next to her.

Fighting a profound blush, Yaz smiled politely at the other guests already at the table, and weathered a round of introductions while she sipped at a fizzy beverage handed off by a server. She let her police training fill in some background details, noting they were in a large, cavernous banquet hall, a live orchestra was playing at the far end of the room, and the eight other people at their table all introduced themselves as experts in different branches of physics.

"Lovely to meet you all," the Doctor chirped. "I'm the Doctor, and this is my partner, Yasmin Khan."

 _Partner_. Yaz barely managed not to choke on her drink.

One of the women across the table clasped her hands in delight. "Oh, how wonderful. It's so nice to finally meet you."

"Is it?" the Doctor turned to give Yaz a speculative look. "Apparently, it's nice to finally meet us," she murmured, with an entirely unsubtle shrug.

"Your other two companions were quite helpful as well," another guest added. "But no one ever caught their names."

"Ryan and Graham," the Doctor supplied. "Brilliant blokes, but they are _definitely_ the less memorable members of the team."

That made everyone at the table laugh, and set off a flurry of unfocused conversation. Yaz sat back, enjoying the collective buzz and the Doctor's lively (if outlandish) contributions.

A mysterious celebratory banquet was admittedly not what Yaz had had in mind for a date. She'd been thinking about some private planet, a picnic, some music, making out under starlight... but this still worked, somehow.

Still, the difference between "companion" and "partner" rippled in her brain, subtle and profound. The Doctor was _proud_ to be with her, to sit alongside her, to declare her an equal to a bunch of strangers.

She took the Doctor's hand and gave it a squeeze, hoping her appreciation was evident.

The Doctor turned a smile her way, with a curious quirk of her brow.

Yaz leaned closer. "So have you figured out what this party is celebrating yet?" she asked.

"No," the Doctor replied. "I could scan a bit," she said, tugging her coat open to indicate her sonic screwdriver safely stashed in a pocket. "But that seems rather conspicuous, and I don't want to ruin the occasion. It's probably just a coincidence."

Yaz knew better, and gave her a wry look. "One thing I've learned traveling with you: there are no coincidences," she said. "Only cause and effect."

"Exactly," the Doctor said, cheerfully contradicting herself. "Have you noticed everyone at our table is a scientist?"

"I had noticed that," Yaz replied.

That fact was rather intriguing and warranted further exploration, but the Doctor was surprisingly mindful of her partner's mood. "I am really sorry, Yaz. This isn't at all what you had in mind for a date, is it?"

Yaz shrugged. "It's not so bad. And we're apparently celebrities," she said, even as the chatter around them faded away, and she found herself drawn into the Doctor's warm, inviting gaze. "Do we have to fix that, retroactively? Do whatever they think we already did?"

The Doctor gave her a lazy grin, one Yaz recognized from previous discussions of the flow of time and space. "I think attending to any causality paradoxes can wait until morning," she said. She looked away, noticing the orchestra playing for the first time. "Oh!" the Doctor chirped, before knocking back the remainder of her beverage and twirling out of her seat to offer Yaz her hand. "May I have this dance?"

Yaz followed her eyes across the enormous space. "No one else is dancing," she observed.

"Well, that's good, because I don't want to dance with anyone else," the Doctor said. "Just you."

Yaz chuckled and took her hand, then let the Doctor lead her to the open floor in front of the orchestra.

This side of the building's interior was dazzling, with shimmering lights and enormous glass cathedral ceilings that revealed thousands of stars in the endless sky above. Somehow the hall's acoustics muted the diners' chatter as they walked across the floor.

Yaz could hardly spare a thought for the remarkableness of their surroundings, because with a tiny flourish, the Doctor had pulled her close, lifting a gentle hand to her back. Their free hands folded together, and suddenly they were moving together to the music. 

She never would have given the Doctor much credit for grace or rhythm, and right then she learned that would have been grossly unfair. There they were, turning in perfect concert, surrounded by music, all while the Doctor looked deep into her eyes like she was the source of everything beautiful.

Other couples joined them, drifting around the floor nearby, while the music built, soared, and eventually crested in a dramatic finale.

The two women found themselves in shadow on the periphery of the dance floor as polite applause signaled the transition of the celebration to the next phase. They were reluctant to part and return to their seats, still so lost in each other and the tenderness of the moment. 

The Doctor smiled at Yaz, and looked a little flushed. "You know," she began, in a low voice, full of wonder. "You make me feel brand new."

Yaz could only lean in and kiss her, surging with emotion she could barely contain. The Doctor made a tiny, breathless noise against her lips, and met her stroke for stroke before they parted, breathing each other in while reality patiently waited around them.

They separated further at the sound of a politely cleared throat nearby. "I'm so glad you both could attend," came a familiar voice. "I wasn't sure where to send the invitation."

This time it was Yaz who managed to find her manners, as she blinked in recognition. "Lieutenant Flinders!" she said, with a warm smile. "How nice to see you again."

"It's Commander, now," the woman corrected politely, as she shook their hands. "They've put me in command of the new mission."

The penny dropped. 

"The _new mission_ ," the Doctor said, rocking on her heels as she processed that revelation. "Of course! Brilliant! So resilient, you humans."

Flinders blinked, but wasn't wildly surprised by the Doctor's unusual commentary. "Yes, well. Most of us wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you. So, thank you."

"Of course," Yaz said, graciously. "We're honored to be here."

After minimal additional pleasantries, Flinders excused herself to attend to the next part of the event, and Yaz and the Doctor headed back to their seats.

"Formal launch of another space station mission," the Doctor concluded.

"Crewed by survivors of the _previous_ mission," Yaz added in agreement. "Did the TARDIS bring us here to celebrate?"

"Not likely," the Doctor said, as she took her seat again. "She's not nearly that sentimental."

The lights in the room dimmed, leaving a single spot on Marybeth Flinders as she took her position in front of the orchestra. Two enormous holographic screens flared to life in the empty air above her, showing a feed of the construction work on the station the crew would soon call home.

"Good evening, friends. Five years ago, we set off on a mission of peaceful discovery," Flinders announced, amplified across the hall. "Our mission was tragically cut short, and cost the lives of three brave colleagues."

The holographic screens changed to show Commander Dixon, Midshipman Perkis, and Midshipman Bonsal, all lost in action. Yaz inhaled sharply, not expecting the reminder of that day, or the young officers who sacrificed everything to save them all.

"Tonight we meet again in the spirit of scientific exploration," Flinders continued. "We will carry the memory of our fallen friends with us, and in their honor we will venture again into the unknown." She smiled, and looked across the room. "I am honored to undertake this mission with you. Thank you, and enjoy the evening."

After a round of heartfelt applause, the lights came up, leaving the holographic displays cycling through facts and figures about the new station's completion. The hall's serving staff began distributing a starter course ahead of the dinner to come.

"Just brilliant," the Doctor murmured in approval, basking in the celebration of human persistence and ingenuity. "Ooh. _And_ they have canapés," she declared, delighted. She gave Yaz a conspiratorial look. "They're like real food, only smaller."

Yaz felt a tingle across her skin, raising the hair at the base of her neck. "Doctor," she began idly. "What exactly _is_ a fixed point in time?"

The Doctor had happily demolished her own plateful of appetizers, and was attacking Yaz's. "An event with so much impact on time and space, that tampering with its outcome could cause time itself to collapse. Why do you ask?" She paused, and swallowed hard while the color drained from her face. "Uh, those canapés are _not_ sitting well," she muttered. "Do you suppose they had Thubanian eel, by chance?"

Yaz's head was full of static. There was a woman walking by their table, moving in shapes that were indistinct, as if not fully constrained by their version of reality. That was... weird. Yaz shook her head, trying to clear it, as the world around them slowed, wrapped in waves of time and chaotic noise.

Beside her, the Doctor clung to the table, exerting considerable will _not_ to become violently ill all over the other guests.

After a few seconds the static receded, and Yaz looked around in confusion at the complete lack of reaction from the other people at their table, before turning to check on the Doctor.

"I'm all right," the Doctor murmured, pale and shaky.

"Did you see her?" Yaz asked. She ran her fingertips over the Doctor's clammy forehead, then down to the twin fluttering pulses in her neck.

"Saw six or seven of her," the Doctor said dryly. She shook her head, and took a careful sip of her drink.

But where did that woman go? Yaz couldn't exactly provide a description, and no one else in the room seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary.

In a moment of sudden inspiration, Yaz reached into the Doctor's coat and nabbed the sonic screwdriver, aimed it at the holographic displays, and keyed it, managing to project the image Ryan's video camera captured from within the temporal fissure.

The crowd reacted in confusion, except for one clear cry of distress, which sparked an obvious trail of commotion as what looked like an agitated blur charged out of the building.

Yaz turned back to the Doctor, who was still pale, but recovering.

"Go," the Doctor said, simply.

Yaz hesitated, then nodded, kicked off her shoes, and ran.


	3. Chapter 3

The _next_ time she and the Doctor went on a date, she was going to wear trainers.

That thought made Yaz smirk as she leapt over a hedge and dropped into a roll on the downward slope beyond. She popped back to her feet, and spotted the anomalous blur sticking to the pathway, curving away and down the hill.

Trainers, yoga pants, and a sports bra, she decided, as she adjusted the now-ruined dress on her shoulder and charged after the woman who seemed to inhabit multiple dimensions at once, radiating an energy that made Yaz's skin feel hot and tight, as if it were sunburnt.

"Stop! Police!" she yelled, figuring she could sort out jurisdiction later. She cocked her head, and could hear the faintest groan of the TARDIS' engines. Looking ahead, there was a break in the path where it took a turn down some steps, which seemed the most likely spot for the TARDIS to park. She dropped her head and broke into a sprint, changing direction to cut off the other woman's escape route.

At the last moment, the TARDIS materialized, the woman reared up and yelped in surprise, and Yaz launched herself, taking the woman down with a shoulder against the small of her back, sending them both tumbling head-first into the TARDIS' open door.

Yaz half-rolled away, breathing hard and trying very hard to ignore the new bruises blooming on literally all of her limbs.

The Doctor stepped over and offered her a hand up. "All right, Yaz?" she asked quietly.

"I'm okay," Yaz panted, as she stood. She looked over to the Doctor in alarm. "Are you..."

"Fine. Filtered the incompatible energy at the door," the Doctor explained, indeed looking a fair sight better than she had at the party. She cast a glance over her shoulder as Graham and Ryan cautiously emerged from the TARDIS' interior. "Sorry about the unexpected bumps, boys. The TARDIS really doesn't like short hops."

The formerly incongruent dimensional blur had resolved into a rather normal looking woman, who slowly sat up from her sprawled position across the floor.

"This is a TARDIS?" she asked, in a rough voice.

"It is." The Doctor crouched, looking the woman over. "Are you hurt?"

The woman shook her head.

"Right. I'm the Doctor, and the woman who tackled you so competently is PC Yasmin Khan, of Hallamshire PD. Also, these are my friends Graham O'Brien and Ryan Sinclair. Now. Who are you?"

The woman shifted, exhaling a sardonic chuckle. She sat back and propped herself on her hands, swinging her long legs out in front of her. She picked at the bits of her ruined party dress. "I thought the Time Lords were extinct."

"And yet, here I am," the Doctor said, unimpressed by her guest's surly attitude. "And here _you_ are, on my ship."

For a long, drawn out moment, they were locked in a stalemate, neither willing to concede. Finally, the woman sighed. "Tandra Venner."

"Nice to meet you, Tandra Venner," the Doctor said with a nod. "Care to tell us how you came to be exposed to a fissure in time?"

Tandra lifted her chin in defiance, giving the Doctor a glare.

Without breaking Tandra's gaze, the Doctor turned her head toward Yaz. "Yaz, the sonic."

Yaz started. She honestly hadn't realized she was still clutching the device in her hand. She aimed it at one of the TARDIS' displays, activating and once again pulling up the still from Ryan's camera.

Tandra flinched.

"Who is she?" the Doctor asked.

"Her name is Sarai," Tandra answered.

"She's a Time Agent?" the Doctor asked.

Yaz found herself leaning closer, biting back a dozen questions.

Tandra nodded.

"You're a Time Agent too?" the Doctor continued.

"Not anymore," Tandra replied, with a shrug of resignation. "Cast out, and stricken from the records."

_The outcast, abandoned and unknown._

Yaz inhaled sharply, as she connected one more fragment from the Remnant on Desolation. She shared a look with the Doctor before she turned away, rocked by the machinations of time and fate that continued to unwind all out of order.

Tandra shifted, and the tension fell out of her limbs as she slumped. "Sarai and I were partners," she continued. "Worked together for years, tracking down 'rogue elements' across the continuum. We found a paradox, some so-called archeologist who was triggering time loops in an abandoned science lab."

The Doctor stood abruptly. Her face set in a strange, angry expression Yaz couldn't quite interpret. "So Sarai captured the paradox in a bubble universe."

Tandra clenched her jaw and nodded. "She tried to. The archeologist escaped, and Sarai accidentally sealed herself inside."

"How long ago?"

"For me? Four hundred linear years." Tandra swiped angrily at a traitorous tear that fell down her cheek. "Give or take. I stopped counting."

That revelation floated in uneasy silence around the room. 

"Mate, you don't look a day over two hundred," Graham joked.

"Artron energy alters human DNA," Tandra said, with a look that expressed a great deal of doubt of his overall intelligence. "At the formation of the quantum barrier, I was exposed to a concentrated burst. Haven't really aged since then."

Graham considered that, then realized the "concentrated burst" sounded awfully familiar. He looked over at Yaz. "But... Oh," he said.

Yaz avoided his gaze.

"But, as you've noticed, sentients who are sensitive to artron energy can feel how wrong I am - was - in this universe," Tandra said. The words were coming easier by the moment, as if freed from a spot clenched deep within her. "If I stayed in this general era, I could use human tech without tipping humans off about... well, me."

"Use human tech to do what?" Ryan asked.

She stared at the image of the woman on the screen, appearing to ignore the question.

"You were trying to breach the bubble," the Doctor said. She dragged a frustrated hand through her hair. "You _do_ realize that if you'd succeeded, you would have torn apart the entire continuum."

Tandra was shaking her head before the Doctor was done speaking. "No. I didn't cause the fissure," she argued. "The quantum barrier never actually sealed properly."

"So you thought you'd poke it and hope you could sneak through?"

"I joined the station crew to study the fissure, to learn how to control it," Tandra argued, without actually refuting the Doctor's assertion.

"You nearly caused a paradox of your own," the Doctor snapped, frustrated. "Humans of this era have no place studying tachyons originating from two millennia in the future."

Yaz stepped closer, inserting herself to break the tension evident between the other two women. "So what happened, during the solar storm?" she asked, quietly.

Tandra shook her head, and shut her eyes in anguish. "I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt."

"I found Commander Dixon in a junction in the engineering subsection," Yaz pressed. "His hands were burned, as if he'd been shocked. Did you kill him?"

"No," Tandra insisted immediately, before backtracking. "I built a vortex sensor array, based on Osiran tech. I just... couldn't regulate the power draw. He found it, but the overload was an accident. I overrode the station computers to buy myself some time."

"Right when the storm hit," the Doctor concluded.

"I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt," Tandra said again, hollow and sad. "I'm sorry."

The sincerity of her remorse effectively extinguished the heat of the Doctor's righteous anger. The Doctor sighed, and finally noticed how bedraggled Yaz appeared from the earlier pursuit. "Oh," she murmured. "We should get you cleaned up." She gestured to their guest in invitation. "Come on, Tandra Venner. Least we can do is offer a shower and some tea."

* * *

After Tandra had bathed and changed into some borrowed sweats, Ryan stayed with her in the galley, keeping an eye on her as much as keeping her company. Graham went wandering, and found Yaz and Doctor in the med bay, where the Doctor was carefully applying antiseptic to the worst of the scrapes across Yaz's forearm.

Both women were ponderous and quiet. Graham wasn't keen to interrupt whatever interplay was in progress, but he did want some answers.

"So what are we gonna do with her?" he asked.

"Drop her off at Stormcage," the Doctor grumbled. "She's reckless and immortal, and that is _never_ a good combination."

" _Doctor_ ," Yaz scolded, mildly appalled at her callousness.

The Doctor waved in vague apology. "Didn't really mean that." She pursed her lips, scanned Yaz's exposed skin with careful eyes, then nodded in satisfaction and set about putting away her first aid kit. "Doesn't make it a bad idea," she muttered.

"But, you heard her," Graham said. "It was all just a complicated accident."

"One she'd repeat, if given the chance, on the station's next mission," the Doctor argued.

"Can we close the fissure?" Yaz asked, trying to aim the Doctor toward a more constructive problem.

The Doctor nodded. "Sure, now that we know it's just a malformed quantum barrier. Triangulate with three vortex manipulators, tune so the frequencies reach harmonic convergence, then the universe is back in one piece. Or, two pieces, properly separated, more accurately."

"Oi, we have two of those things," Graham said, snapping his fingers. "One from Baridi, and one from that Krasko fellow in Alabama."

"And there's a third on the other side," Yaz concluded.

"Well, how do we tell them to use it? Toss them a note?" Graham asked.

Yaz was giving the Doctor an intense, quiet gaze. The Doctor looked back at her, already anticipating what she was about to suggest.

"Oh, no. That is _not_ a good idea," the Doctor said. Her nostrils flared in agitation.

"What other choice do we have?" Yaz asked.

Graham waited, and figured they'd eventually clue him in to whatever conversation they were having without him.

"Fine. But be sure," the Doctor admonished. She pressed a gentle hand to Yaz's shoulder, then wandered off toward the galley.

Yaz folded her arms in pensive unease. While she appreciated the Doctor's trust, she was rather hoping for a bit of reassurance, too.

"Sure about what?" Graham asked.

Yaz sighed. "Letting Tandra enter the fissure, to help close it from the other side."

He nodded. "Ah, yeah. That would solve one problem. But what about the people from the station?"

"I don't know yet," she murmured. She hopped off the med bay bed to follow the Doctor, but stopped at Graham's touch at her elbow.

"Yaz, hang on," he said. "That Tandra said her DNA was altered by that energy thing on Baridi. You got exposed to the same stuff, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah," she said quietly.

"Are you okay?"

She sighed, and felt tears brimming in her eyes. "I don't know that yet, either."

* * *

"Four hundred years, and you never let go?" Ryan asked.

Tandra took a sip of her tea. "I don't really expect you to understand," she murmured. She didn't bother hiding her uncertainty when the Doctor came in, followed by Yaz and Graham. "And I'm not asking for forgiveness."

"Regardless of the cost?" Ryan pressed. "Because you're the only one who matters?"

"No, of course not," Tandra said, with a sigh. "But... in the Agency, you don't really exist. Your partner is really your only tether." She set down her mug, and struggled to find her next words. "She's lost to me, but not actually gone. I couldn't just give up on her."

And there it was. The Doctor dropped her shoulders, then caught Yaz's gaze and gave her a nearly imperceptable nod.

Yaz smiled gratefully back at her, then turned to Tandra. "We can seal the fissure, but we need a message to get to the other side. Will you help?"

Tandra stared at her, face slack in disbelief. " _Yes_ ," she breathed. She spread her hand against the table, trying to hold herself steady. "Really?"

"Really," Yaz confirmed. She smiled, and tried to project confidence she absolutely didn't feel.

* * *

Yaz hadn't expected to walk across Baridi's snowy hills again. She followed in Tandra's tracks, fussed with the straps of the energy filtration system, and tried to shake the vague feeling of unease that built with every step.

Tandra didn't have much to say, which was wildly inconvenient, as Yaz found herself burdened by endless questions. Increased interference from the fissure made communication with the TARDIS impossible, so they made the journey in silence.

Yaz fired up the filter once they entered the laboratory structure. The effective radius was small enough that they had to step carefully, side by side, as they trekked deeper into the facility.

"Why would an archeologist come here?" Yaz asked, finally ceding to intense curiosity.

"The facility was built in the late thirty-second century," Tandra said. "And eventually abandoned due to reports of ghosts, of all things. The archeologist came here to study the place."

Yaz blinked in surprise. "Humans in the thirty-second century believe in _ghosts?_ "

Tandra chuckled ruefully. "The Agency concluded that they were likely seeing artron energy echoes from the fissure that formed two thousand years later."

"Oh," Yaz murmured. She shook her head. "Hey, so. Does causality ever stop giving you a headache?"

"No," Tandra concluded, bleakly.

They'd made it to the last corridor before the chasm, where the fissure blared in escalating temporal chaos. Tandra stopped at the wall where the Gallifreyan characters were painted, and she touched them almost reverently.

"Those symbols..." Yaz began.

"The talisman," Tandra said. "It was so strange to see it here."

"What? What do you mean?" Yaz demanded.

"Where I grew up, this is a phrase of protection, or a plea for help," Tandra explained. "Just superstition, really. My mother taught me when I was little, said it would summon warriors who would fight for me."

"But... you didn't put this here?" Yaz asked.

Tandra studied her, in the furtive light of their handheld equipment. "No. We think the archeologist did. It was what triggered the paradox the Agency detected."

Yaz shifted uncomfortably, realizing she was on the causative and receiving end of _two_ paradoxes, now.

"What does it mean to _you_?" Tandra asked, intensely curious.

"I don't know yet," Yaz admitted.

Tandra wasn't sure how to interpret that statement. She stepped closer, lowering her voice. "Listen, when you wander around space and time, you think you'll eventually get around to certain things. If time is meaningless, it doesn't matter if you never tell someone how you feel..." She trailed off and hung her head. "Just.... don't make the mistake I did. All of time is precious."

Yaz nodded, and followed her onto the gangway, across the chasm, and down the ladder. They moved carefully, even as the instruments strapped to Yaz's arm sounded warnings about the intensity of the energy swirling around them.

They placed one vortex manipulator, then another, and activated them. The fissure raged, and threatened to split apart in a final, catastrophic eruption.

"It's time," Yaz called, over the growing cacophony.

Tandra hesitated. "Think she waited around for me?" she asked.

"Only one way to know," Yaz replied.

Tandra nodded, stared down the event horizon of the corruption of the entire universe, then rushed the weakened barrier, and disappeared in a swirl of light.

Impossibly long seconds ticked by, and still Yaz waited, ignoring the flashing sensors that all told her to run.

Suddenly, the fissure contracted and fizzled away, leaving behind a faint acrid smell. The sensors returned to normal readings. And then... a thump.

Yaz looked closer, and saw the helmet she'd tossed into the fissure, with Ryan's camera still attached, stuck in the dirt at the floor of the chasm. She shook her head in bemusement, picked it up, and looked around the now dark, unremarkable chasm. She gathered the vortex manipulators, spared a good thought for Tandra and Sarai (wherever they were), then started the long walk back to the TARDIS.

She was trudging through the snow, keeping her head bent against the wind, while her brain worked in circles, trying to interpret everything that had happened in this place, and trying to reconcile her role in letting three deaths go unanswered.

She looked up, squinting against the blustering wind, and saw the Doctor waiting on the slope ahead. Her rainbow scarf fluttered behind her dramatically.

Yaz jogged up the slope and threw her arms around the Doctor in a sad, but celebratory hug.

The Doctor held her for a profound, desperate moment, then walked her back to the TARDIS in silence.

* * *

It wasn't the frigid climate of Baridi, but Sheffield still had a chill in the air.

Yaz was shivering, with her hands shoved into the pockets of her leather jacket as she stared over the misty hills from Skye Edge Fields. She spotted the Doctor hovering on the path to her left, and tilted her head in a "get over here" motion.

The Doctor immediately sat down, grabbed one of Yaz's arms, slung it over her own shoulder, and scooted in close to Yaz's warmth. Yaz pulled her in tight, and bumped her nose against Doctor's hair.

"Your family okay?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah," Yaz replied. "Mum's worried, like she always is. Said something is 'different' about me, and asked if it was because of you."

The Doctor snorted.

"I kind of said yes," Yaz admitted. "You're expected over for tea next weekend." She winced, and waited for the Doctor's reaction.

The Doctor pulled back and looked at her, surprise plain across her face.

"I hope that's all right?" Yaz asked.

"Does that mean we're girlfriends? No." The Doctor frowned, and squinted into the mist. "Gal pals?"

"I liked 'partners,'" Yaz murmured.

"Oh good, me too." She settled back against Yaz's shoulder with a happy wriggle. "I am _definitely_ up for tea at my partner Yaz's."

Yaz sighed in relief, and hugged her back.

"You're still sad," the Doctor observed gently.

Yaz couldn't really deny as much, so she shrugged. "What do you think their universe like?" she asked, certain the Doctor would follow her train of thought to Tandra and Sarai.

"Probably a lot like this one," the Doctor said. "It's less a 'bubble' and more a different quantum phase of reality, just captured and sealed away from this one."

"Do you think there's a you and me there?"

At that, the Doctor smiled, slow and sure. "Can't have a universe with no Yaz," she murmured.

Then, finally, Yaz got to the part that was really bothering her. "Do you think I did the right thing?"

The Doctor sighed. "Well, that's not really up to me. Not a lot of 'right' answers to be had, anyway." She reached over and tucked her hand under Yaz's leather jacket, seeking her warmth. "Do _you_ think you did the right thing?"

Yaz shut her eyes. "I don't know," she said, honestly. "The crew of that space station didn't really get justice."

"But a broken soul _was_ shown mercy," the Doctor replied. "Somewhere on the scales of the universe, that probably all balances out." She tilted up to press a kiss to Yaz's hair. "You were _kind_ ," she added, with emphasis that was lost to Yaz. "That means you did the right thing."

The ensuing silence drew out longer than the Doctor expected. Finally, Yaz drew a noisy breath. "If it'd been you locked away, I'd find a way to get to you," she said. "It just might take me a while."

"I'd wait, for you," the Doctor promised. She stared out into the misty park, and glanced upward when rain drops started to fall. She couldn't help but think of Rose, stashed safely in another universe, out of reach, with a Doctor who could love her properly.

Her head warred again with that same impulse; the one to run, to protect herself, to push away someone she...

Yaz stirred, somehow sensing the other woman's impending spiral. It wouldn't do for them _both_ to wander down a dark path. She pulled away and turned, giving the Doctor an intense look. "Listen. I have you, right?" Yaz asked, clutching at the Doctor's chilled hands. "I mean, maybe we'll get sick of each other after a few hundred years, but also maybe not."

At that, the Doctor managed to chuckle. "You have me," she promised.

"And you have _me_ ," Yaz vowed. "We're in this together. And have you noticed how awesome we are together? Like, _proper_ awesome. Like, save-the-universe-on-the-regular awesome."

"I have _you_ ," the Doctor murmured. She tilted her head a bit, realizing she hadn't let herself believe it before that very moment. 

Yaz grinned, and stood up from the bench. "Okay. C'mon, let's get going. I'm freezing, and I'm sure there's some fair play out in the universe to sort."

The Doctor let herself be tugged upright by their joined hands, but pulled Yaz to a stop. "Hang on," she said. She let her mind focus outward, studying this snapshot in time. It wasn't so different than so many moments before, really. So many of her past selves had spent time under drizzly skies with so many brilliant humans. But this self, with this human... this time it was _extraordinary_. She stood at a metaphorical crossroads, but for the first time in longer than she could remember, she wasn't alone.

"I love you," the Doctor blurted, surprising herself. Then she exhaled a laugh, then leaned closer with a delighted grin. "Yasmin Khan," she breathed. "My amazing Yaz. I love you." She watched Yaz's face as her expression transmuted into pure amazement and joy. It was so beautiful, she thought both her hearts might seize at once.

Yaz took a deep breath. "I love _you_ ," she said, then shook her head. "But you knew that."

"I knew that," the Doctor confirmed. Just like she'd known it with Rose, when she'd let it scare her into paralysis. Just like she'd known it with River, who had no patience for her paralysis. _This_ time, with _this_ human, it was going to be different. She tipped forward to meet Yaz's smile in a sweet, gentle kiss. 

Somehow, in a moment this portentous, the world didn't end. Daleks didn't attack. Time didn't unravel. The TARDIS was still parked under the tree where they'd left it, and the rain kept falling.

And, by all the stars in the universe, the Doctor realized she was wildly, unreservedly _happy_. 

(Amazing.)

She pulled away, grinning at Yaz as she heaved a sigh of profound relief. "C'mon then. Someone said something about fair play."

* * *

#### Epilogue:

After detecting a vague temporal anomaly that warranted investigation, the TARDIS landed on the outskirts of a market on Borix Seven at moonrise. They surveyed the crowds for a moment, and agreed to split up to get their bearings.

Then the Doctor had kissed Yaz on the cheek, told her to be careful, and smiled that "see you later" smile that made Yaz's insides flip.

So Yaz wandered in amongst the stalls, just observing, letting the natural frenetic activity of the market ebb and flow around her, resolving into predictable patterns...

... which eventually revealed the unusual shadow darting away from the stalls, down an alley.

Yaz followed, staying a cautious distance away, and watched as the figure in a dark, hooded coat pulled out an instrument of some kind, and started writing on the wall.

Yaz knew the pattern, by now. She knew the concentric circles and the joints between the characters, and the swooping shape that give it no tense at all. This person knew it as well as Yaz herself. She was not witnessing the superstitious replication of a mythical talisman, but rather... fluency.

In Gallifreyan?

She kept her steps light, and edged closer. "Fan of the Timeless Child, are you?" she called.

"Actually, the Oncoming Storm was always more my type," came the reply. The figure turned, revealing a woman with wild, curly hair barely restrained under the dark hood. She squinted at Yaz and sighed. "Oh, it's you. That's awkward."

"You're the one leaving this phrase around the universe?" Yaz demanded.

"Only here and there," the woman replied. "Not my fault it caught on during a couple planetary revolutions and a galactic renaissance."

Yaz blinked.

"Haven't gotten to those yet?" She stepped closer, and gave Yaz an appraising look. "Oh, you're _new_ to this. How positively delicious."

Yaz was trying her very hardest not to be rattled. "What does the message mean?" she demanded.

"Well, it means different things to different people. That's kind of the point." She pulled out a worn blue book and jotted down a few scratchy notes. Yaz started, recognizing the book from the Doctor's library. "To _me_ , it means someone I dearly love won't be alone," the woman concluded, before snapping the book shut and tucking it away in her coat.

"Who _are_ you?"

"Aha. Spoilers." She twirled and headed down the darkened alley, then tossed a wave back over her shoulder. "See you around, Yasmin Khan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End, Harmonices Mundi.
> 
> So, hey. This was fun.
> 
> (In my head, there's a sequel where River plays temporal Cyrano to Yaz, helping her woo the Doctor while _just_ managing not to mangle the timeline. Heh.)
> 
> Thanks for reading. :)


End file.
